Counter-terror police investigate 'unexplained' death

The statement confirmed that police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 22:46 on Monday, to reports of a man found deceased at a residential address in Clarence Avenue, New Malden.

United Kingdom counter-terror police are investigating the "unexplained death" of a Russian businessman in London. "The death is now being treated as unexplained", he said.

Lawyer Andrei Borovkov told Russian media outlets that his client, Nikolai Glushkov, has died, but said he was unaware of the time and circumstances.

There was no evidence linking the death to the incidents in Salisbury, it said.

On Tuesday the Met Police issued a statement, saying: "At this stage the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation as a precaution because of associations that the man is believed to have had".

Police officers man a cordon near where Sergei Skripal was poisoned along with his daughter.

At the time of his death, he was living alone in New Malden, south-west London and was said to be a "nice man" who used to give his neighbour's children gifts at Christmas.

PUTIN critic Nikolai Glushkov feared being on a Russian hit-list five years before he was found dead with "strangulation marks" on his neck. An inquest failed to determine whether he had killed himself or died from foul play.

In the 1990s, Glushkov served as deputy managing director at Russia's flag carrier Aeroflot and worked for Berezovsky's LogoVAZ vehicle company.

He was arrested in 1999 and put on trial for embezzling US$7 million from Aeroflot.

Berezovsky, a powerful oligarch and one-time supporter of Putin who turned against his former protege, was found hanged in a bathroom at his home outside London in 2013.

Glushkov came to the United Kingdom after being freed from prison and spoke out against Berezovsky's death claiming he never believed his friend died of natural causes. In March 2017, Moscow's Savelovsky District Court handed him a second eight-year sentence in absentia for the embezzlement of Aeroflot's funds.

It said Russian Federation had sought his extradition in 2015 "for committing a number of severe financial offences on the territory of Russian Federation", but the British government refused.